Dorianne Laux Praises Stephen Dunn's 'Audacious, Darkly Comic and Exquisitely Tender' Poetry
In advance of his Thursday evening poetry reading at NC State, Pultizer Prize–winning poet Stephen Dunn is featured in North Carolina State University's Technician, along with a brief introduction to his appearance on campus by poetry professor Dorianne Laux, who says that Dunn is a poet of "great surprise." More:
Aspiring authors and poets are a niche that is often overlooked among the plethora of engineering students that account for the majority of NC State. This being said, creative writing is the most popular concentration for English majors here at NC State. Poetry is a skill that is difficult to pursue in today’s technological world. However, student writers will have the opportunity to learn from a well-established poet, right here on campus.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stephen Dunn will be reading his poetry from a variety of his works on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Caldwell Lounge. This event is part of the Literary Reading Series, which is hosted by the English department’s creative writing program.
Dunn attended Hofstra University on a basketball scholarship and graduated with a degree in history in 1962. He then achieved his Master of Arts in creative writing from Syracuse University in 1970.
Dunn will soon be the author of 19 books once his next publication, “Where As,” hits the shelves in February 2017. Dunn credits his success as a poet to his teachers, along with an intense desire to read all the poetry he could — even by poets he had never heard of.
“I started late,” Dunn said. “I had a corporate job in NY at 26. I didn’t want be any of those people in the office. I got married and went to Spain and wrote a very bad novel there, but it showed me I wanted to be a poet.”
Dunn was in minor shock when he was told one of his books of poetry, “Different Hours,” won a Pulitzer Prize. “Different Hours” was driven by the desire to accomplish as much as possible in his lifetime.
Continue reading at Technician.